About Play 2 Raise and Child's Play Charity

Play 2 Raise is a group of friends dedicated to playing video games to raise money for Child's Play Charity:
a non-profit that donates toys, books, and games to children recovering in hospitals worldwide. Play 2 Raise
was founded in 2011 and was originally known as "Halo Marathon" before expanding to other game marathons and
coining the name, “Play 2 Raise" in 2013.
While playing video games is the focus of the event, we try to make the stream as interactive as possible for
our viewers. A live chatroom displayed on a second screen in the living room ensures that our players see everything
viewers have to say. Another feature of the chat room allows viewers to "react" to events on stream simply by typing
a command such as "lol" or "boo." Depending on the number of people who react at around the same time, a sound clip
associated with that reaction will play in our living room. A bot that moderates the chat room will also play small
games allowing viewers to collect a virtual currency, “coins” that they can spend by making the players do silly tasks.

The Play 2 Raise Team

Josh Stelting

Josh founded Play 2 Raise in 2011. He recently graduated university and is currently working as a Software Developer.
He was deeply troubled when we told him 'charity game marathoner' is not a valid career path. Josh
looks after most of the technical things at the marathon, so if anything goes wrong... blame him.

Jeff Nuij

Play 2 Raiser: 8 years Roles: Participant About:

Jeff is one of the original members of Play 2 Raise. He is a long-time Nintendo fan and plays a big part in making sure we actually beat the games we set out to play.

Laura Lavallee

Play 2 Raiser: 5 years Roles: Participant, Cook, Crafter. About:

Laura is basically Play2Raise’s “Grandma”. She is in charge of making sure that everyone is fed and tries to make everyone eat cookies. She also likes to knit, crochet, and drinks a lot of tea. Laura is much better at cooking than she as at gaming, but she really does try her best.

Tahani Hallam

Ask your doctor about Tahani today!
Warning: Tahani may cause anxiety, headaches, laziness, delusions of grandeur, the sudden urge to call every dog a "cute lil pupper", the appearance of cat hair on all of your earthly possessions, incurable Dad Jokeitus, an insatiable need to meme, and death.

Cynthia Chao

Play 2 Raiser: 4 years Roles: Participant, Social Media About:

Cynthia resembles a small dog in almost all aspects of her personality, including enthusiasm, excitability, tiring herself out after too much enthusiasm and excitability, and making loud squeaky noises. She enjoys vigorous button smashing, pizza, and leaving half-finished beverages in mysterious places.

Scott Carter

Play 2 Raiser: 1 year Roles: Participant About:

"Scott has been described as both roguishly handsome and a gigantic liar." -Scott

Nick Miller

Play 2 Raiser: Part time Roles: Participant About:

Nick really likes to argue. That’s it. We don’t have to write anything else about him.

Tagen Michels

Play 2 Raiser: 1 year Roles: Participant About:

This is Tagen’s first year as an official Play 2 Raise participant. She has no idea what she is getting herself into.

Alex Lemley

Play 2 Raiser: Part time Roles: Participant About:

When life gives you Lemley, you make him play a bunch of Mario games.

Pete Tammilehto

Play 2 Raiser: 1st Year Roles: Participant About:

Pete is either colorblind or can't smell and isn't sure which and his father is long Mario.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is Child's Play Charity?
Since 2003, Child's Play has been a game industry charity dedicated to improving the lives of children with toys and games. They help over 100 hospitals worldwide with the millions of dollars the community has raised.
Who are you guys?
We are a group of friends based out of Victoria, B.C. While we aren't exactly speedrunners, we love to play video games and help out in any way we can. With over $9,000 (It's over 9000!!!) raised for children recovering in hospitals to date, we are blown away by the continued love and support our viewers show us.
Are you affiliated with Child's Play Charity?
No. However, all donations go directly to Child's Play Charity. We simply track the donations to try to unlock more goals and so we can give away awesome prizes!

Are you affiliated with Nintendo?
No. We are just a group of friends that love their games and want to do something for a good cause.
I can't donate, but I want to help.
AWESOME! There are so many ways you can help out without having to donate. Spreading the word on any kind of social platform really helps us out. You can also join the chat room and encourage and motivate us. Sometimes things get a bit slow and the chat room can really help us keep the energy up!
I want to do a charity marathon!
In our first marathon, we used nothing but a usb capture device and a Macbook for webcam and microphone. For beginners, I highly recommend this awesome guide to getting started with game marathons.